Unsung Composers

Joseph Mendoes, a Californian cellist whom I know and respect, is planning to record Raff's complete music for cello and piano with pianist Taeyeon Lim. The recording should be issued by Martin Anderson's Toccata label later this year. The project will be funded through Kickstarter - here's the link (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1469525019/complete-cello-and-piano-works-of-joachim-raff-cd) - for a relatively modest $2,500. This CD will fill one of the few remaining major gaps in the non-piano Raff repertoire. Although one of the Op.86 Fantasy Pieces has been recorded before, everything else will be a world premiere recording. There is some beguiling music here: the Cello Sonata is a major piece written during Raff's prime, as were the two Op.182 Romances, which are both achingly melodious. The earlier works date from the 1850s and combine Raff's trademark lyricism with virtuosic writing for the piano and cello alike. The two Beethoven Romance arrangements will be fascinating takes on familiar works. In short, this recording promises to to be a must buy for any Raff enthusiast, and I do urge anyone who enjoys Raff's music to contribute to the Kickstarter appeal.

Lovely jubbly!

Well, the Sonata, opus 183 may be a world premiere recording, there was a broadcast of it and as I recall, it was in the Downloads section.  Alhough it seems to have disappeared.   Mario de Secondi & Stefana Chitta-Stegemann the artists.

Once again, sorry to see that the opt-in for this project is so high.   I frequent a silent movie forum and one of their members just kickstarted a $2500 restoration project with $25 pledges.  Which was funded post haste.  Of course, everyone gets a copy of the DVD.

J

Indeed, as a backer of a number of video game projects where you get the game for $15 or less (yes, digital versions, but still) it seems a bit odd that just to get the music at all requires $80. Especially as I've seen physical soundtrack bonuses for said game projects be quite a bit less ($25....usually $50 is the usually the highest). Surely a digital DL at a much lower tier would be feasible to help give a lot more incentive.

Still....I fully plan to buy this when out as a normal CD. Sounds delightful.

Halfway through the appeal period, the project is already three quarters of the way towards raising the full amount, which is great news. Only $675 to go...

It looks like this project is going to happen - there's only $180 left to find....

Good news that the project appears to be reaching its goal. However....perhaps it's just me, but these crowdfunding operations still seem uncomfortably fuzzy.  First of all, this particular project is listed as having 4 backers at $250 and 4 at $80.  I wasn't a math major in college, but I have trouble reaching the announced donation total of $2,320 from those numbers.  Perhaps someone donated an additional $1000 that simply doesn't tick a box in the $80 or $250 selections. 

At one point months ago, I tried to get into the weeds of a similar music recording project, trying to find in the small print whether a backer can get his/her money back if the project fails to materialize.  I was left with a lot of arcane language that seemed unconvincing one way or another. 

And over on the Percy Sherwood thread, we apparently still don't have a clear verdict on that funding project, unfortunately the donations fell far short of the goal on that one.  The Sherwood crowdfunding page proudly announces "Complete!" in a big red star, but I find no explanation for exactly what that means - cd will or won't be produced, donors will or won't be refunded if no cd...?.  Crowdfunding is a superb idea in theory and is wildly successful in general, and properly managed might well bring wonderful unsung pieces to light for the first time....it just seems that a little more straightforwardness and a little less haze would be welcome, especially for those of us who have donated, or are sincerely considering doing so.

http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,5888.msg63807.html#msg63807 (http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,5888.msg63807.html#msg63807)

Gregory

Great news indeed.

As for the Sherwood project, we've already posted updated details:
http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,5888.msg63809.html#msg63809 (http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,5888.msg63809.html#msg63809)

Gregory: your maths is fine. Someone did indeed donate $1000 to get the ball rolling, and I guess that donation should qualify as $250+, but for some reason it didn't.

As far as accountability, security and integrity is concerned, this KickStarter page (http://www.kickstarter.com/help/faq/kickstarter%20basics#Acco) covers the basics. It does make clear that no money pledged is taken if the goal isn't reached, but if it is achieved then it's debited and passed over to the project organiser. KickStarter is then out of the equation, and the relationship is solely between the organiser and their backers. Ultimately there are no guarantees as there's no contract. I backed this project because I know Joseph Mendoes and Martin Anderson and trust them both to deliver the goods. The project is a straightforward one with achievable goals, and the product is clearly and unambiguously described. I've passed up similar opportunities in the past because that wasn't true of them. Crowd funding is based on trust, and if you don't have faith in the ability of those asking for crowd funding to deliver the project, then you shouldn't contribute. For me, it's a simple as that. 

I see that the money needed has now been pledged in full, so we should be able to look forward to this important recording later on this year.

Marvellous.

A progress report, and there's quite a lot of progress to report: the recordings were all made in April, and editing has just been completed. The booklet notes have been written and Martin Anderson is planning a September release for the CD.

In the end the Beethoven Romance reductions were not recorded, for two reasons: there was insufficient room for them both on the CD and they're not very good! This isn't down to Raff, of course. He had originally made the piano reductions of the orchestral accompaniments several years earlier for violin and piano editions of the Romances. The cello arrangements were subsequently made by the cellist Robert Emil Bockmühl, and not only do they not preserve the delicacy of Beethoven's original, they don't integrate well with Raff's piano part, so they are best forgotten.

More news as soon as I have it.

Excellent news. Thanks, Mark.

It's due out on 2nd September:
http://www.mdt.co.uk/raff-complete-music-cello-and-piano-mendoes-lim-toccata-classics.html (http://www.mdt.co.uk/raff-complete-music-cello-and-piano-mendoes-lim-toccata-classics.html)

Bang on schedule!

Toccata announces for September 1 a new recording of all pieces for Cello and Piano by Joachim Raff. Joseph Mendoes, Cello and
Taeyeon Lim, Piano will be the soloists.

https://toccataclassics.com/product/joachim-raff-cello-piano/ (https://toccataclassics.com/product/joachim-raff-cello-piano/)

I've merged your new thread, Wieland, with the existing thread on this topic.

Thanks. I seem to have problems with the search function. I will work on it ;).

Unfortunately there may well be a short delay before this recording is available. The CDs were delivered to Toccata Classics with a major fault in the last track, and so will have to be manufactured again. This is already in hand and so the delay should be weeks, rather than months. As soon as I know more I'll post here. I don't know whether this will also affect the 1st September availability of the download tracks. In the meantime, you can sample each track and download the booklet here (https://toccataclassics.com/product/joachim-raff-cello-piano/).

The Sonata's a wonderful work, by the way. Tunes galore, dynamism, plus some interesting harmonic byways - try the finale at the link Mark supplies (above).

After a short hiatus, both CDs and downloads are now fully available.

I wonder if Mark would be kind enough to offer some clarification? Did the initial batch of CDs with a fault not get beyond Toccata itself? Or to put it another way, are there any wonky CDs in the hands of retailers? Can we order a copy from a customary retailer such as MDT and be confident in getting, as it were, some non-wonky Raff?

(A friendly note to friends beyond the UK: retailers such as Sainsburys now offer such things as wonky carrots at reduced prices which - quite unlike wonky Raff - can be consumed with delight.)

You can order the Raff CD from any retailer, Peter, and be confident that it'll be completely wonk-free. I understand that the fault was spotted on delivery of the original CDs to Toccata and before distribution to retailers, so no wonky CDs should have escaped into the wild.

The Cello Sonata is a typical Raff composition, featuring quicksilver passage work, broad, singing melodies and some harmonically adventurous sections. It is played with virtuoso abandon here; how on earth such a fine composition can have been overlooked by cellists for so long is anyone's guess. And the slow movement is just gorgeous.

This is a nice CD but I'm slightly disappointed by the very strange sound quality (and this is the whole CD, no issues with the last track specifically). The cello especially sounds very weird....I don't know how to describe it.

For me the cello is too closely miked, so that there's no space around the sound and maybe it's that artificial intensity which is the problem. I'd prefer a more natural acoustic, of course, but for me it doesn't detract too much from the music and the fine performances.